Planting the first earlies… at last
I’ve waited for this for what feels like a year. I’ve been desperate to get the bloody potatoes in, but Life has conspired against me for weeks.
It was a lovely afternoon, but Nature is slow to bestir Herself this year. I saw my first daffodil on Wednesday (a pretty mangy specimen), but of Spring there is still barely a sign. No Forsythia, no Camellias, nothing. Have you seen any?
Folks keep saying a hot summer follows a cold winter. But the summer of 1963, following the ‘Great Freeze’ of 62/63, was apparently unremarkable… so I’m not holding my breath. This Global Warming thingamajig ain’t all it’s cracked up to be – in the UK, at any rate.
Got my spuds in this weekend too…however that was all I did…and I had so many plans and can’t even blame the weather!!!
March 21st, 2010 at 8:28 pm
You know, they call it “Global Change” now for a reason… No guaranteed warming. As a matter of fact, N. Europe might get much colder if the Gulf Stream slows. This year’s weather could be an as of yet unstudied European effect from the El Nino though . Who knows? It all makes for exciting times.
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:27 am
I managed to get 4 rows in before the rain got too bad. I used the rainy time to check out the new local Garden Center, which, sadly, was nothing special.
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:41 am
Mine were planted two weeks ago, but must say that my hopes are a bit low since the recurrence of potato blight around my allotment site. Any suggestions on how to deal with it?
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:55 am
I still haven’t got my spuds in, but there’s no panic yet. I did get down to the allotment though for a general tidy up.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:25 pm
got to be the sarpo spuds for blight they are sooooooo tough
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I got the first couple of rows in yesterday, along with some onions and some very late broad beans. Hoping for dry weather and a gap in my work on Thursday or Friday so I can continue, but the forecast for either does not look promising…
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 pm
saw a nice camelia outside the Ashtead Squash Club (Surrey) yesterday – nephews baptism drinks. Nowt happening with mine though, probably neglect rather than weather!
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Rham: Blight is almost impossible to avoid in warm, wet weather. All you can do is ensure you don’t actually help its spread; so NEVER compost potato haulms (the green top growth). Always burn them.
One thing that works against blight is Bordeaux mixture, but you have to keep the leaves coated in the solution… which is bloody difficult when it’s raining all the time! Plus Bordeaux mixture contains a lot of copper, which you don’t really want washing into your soil in large quantities. It’s accepted in organic standards in some countries, but spraying more than, say, twice in a summer seems like a bad idea to me.
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Quite rainy over the weekend & I was a right wuss…. did nothing more than noodle about with my indoor seedlings. Still got a third more of my plot to dig – the third where I want to plant potatoes. I can feel some annual leave days coming on….
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
First earlies in, and first row of second earlies too – soft Southerners are lucky about some things! But my celeriac are refusing to germinate at all this year, so I reckon it’s one of those win some, lose some years. Again.
March 24th, 2010 at 9:14 pm